Two weeks before Great Britain declared war on Germany in 1914, the Saint John central business district was the site of another type of conflict, a labour struggle that pitted more than 100 members of the street railway union against the unpopular streetcar company. The three-day strike drew thousands of onlookers and supporters to the uptown area and produced the most iconic image from early 20th-century Saint John, two tram cars resting on their side in Market Square, observed by curious citizens. Despite its significance, the strike and riot are not commemorated by a plaque or found in any tourism promotion materials for the city.

This episode begins with an overview of the history of the city’s streetcar system, which in the era before mass automobile ownership and public transit buses was an essential urban service for commuters, workers and shoppers. We next examine the labour movement in early 20th century Saint John, noting some of its victories and losses, to remind listeners that Saint John in the past was also a workers’ city and that unions were in the vanguard of social reform.

We next move on to the causes of the strike, which involved unfair labour practices by the employer, and how the union members maintained discipline and appealed to replacement workers to come over to their side, while non-union sympathizers used intimidation tactics to stop the running of the streetcars. The overturning of two streetcars on the second day of the strike led to some of the most dramatic incidents in the city’s history. These included the reading of the Riot Act; a foolhardy and dangerous cavalry charge into a crowd of several thousand men, women and children; an attack on the company’s power plant that knocked out electricity to the city for a few hours; a less successful attempt on the company’s car barns and workshop that was fended off by armed private detectives and the calling out of several hundred militia, armed with rifles, bayonets and cavalry sabres, to maintain order.

The episode concludes with a conversation with playwright and Université de Moncton literature professor Thomas Hodd, author of the play O’Brien, which is inspired by the events in Saint John in July 1914. The discussion here includes the richness of Saint John as an inspiration for dramatic work and the importance of telling New Brunswick stories. O’Brien, a production of Theatre New Brunswick, will be staged in several New Brunswick communities from March 5 to March 16, 2025. The play’s Saint John date is March 9, 2025. For more in the production, see: https://www.tnb.nb.ca/obrien/.

Show Notes: https://www.nothinghappenedhere.ca/post/except-for-the-1914-street-railway-riot

In this episode, we return to Sept. 11 1968 and the early moments of the first skyjacking in Canadian history on board Air Canada Flight 303. The flight had arrived from Moncton, New Brunswick to pick up passengers at Saint John with a final destination of Toronto. In addition to pilot, Ronald Hollett, and second officer, Ronald Bromley, the crew consisted of flight attendants Christine Waud and Beverley Atkinson. Christine and Beverley were the first people on board to realize that a hijacking was being attempted.

According to a list released to the press by Air Canada, the passengers who boarded the Vickers Viscount at Moncton were Judie Peterson of Ajax, Ontario and her Moncton-based grandparents, George and Lilian Peterson; Mrs. B.W. Smith; restaurant owner and boxing promoter Fred Smith of Chatham and Rene Durelle, Canada light heavyweight boxing champion of Baie St. Anne. Rene was accompanied by his father and trainer, Placide, brother of the famous New Brunswick boxer Yvon Durelle, the “fighting fisherman”; Francine Levy of Toronto, and her 20-month old son Phillipe; Mrs. J.W. Sabina and Mrs. P.R. Sabina of Winnipeg; Camille Chanard of Downsview and Gerard Hennigar of Toronto. The passengers who joined the flight at Saint John were Susan Pridham, 21-year old Gary Newman, a member of the Canadian armed forces; Berta Peacock; Mike Wennberg and “Mr. Garvey,” who had arrived by automobile from Halifax.

The episode, which includes clips from recent interviews with three passengers who boarded Flight 303 at Saint John, as well as flight attendant Christine Waud and Air Canada passenger agent Charles “Bud” Cavanagh, recounts what happened once the flight was in the air and how it was diverted from its original destination to the airport at Dorval, west of Montreal. This was after “Mr. Garvey,” whose real name was Charles L. Beasley, produced a loaded revolver and demanded to be flown to Cuba. Beasley explained that he was a Black Power activist who was on the run from the Central Intelligence Agency. We next examine the peaceful outcome of the incident, the legal consequences for Charles Beasley, and its short-term impact on airport security. We conclude with a brief examination of the legal changes and security measures that eventually ended- for the most part- the Golden Age of skyjacking in Canada, but not before an incident in 1971 on another Air Canada flight led to the first successful act of aircraft piracy in Canada.

Show Notes: https://www.nothinghappenedhere.ca/post/except-for-the-first-skyjacking-in-canada

In 1968, Saint John made aviation history as the starting point for Canada’s first skyjacking: an Air Canada Vickers Viscount passenger plane headed for Toronto. This was the first of several acts of air piracy during the golden age of skyjacking in Canada. We begin our episode by discussing the golden age of commercial aviation in Canada, when passenger travel was associated with glamour, passenger comfort and convenience. Relatively expensive compared to later decades, air travel from the late 1950s to the early 1970s was not a mass phenomenon and the typical passenger was a male business executive. Female flight attendants, who tended to be young, were specially trained to look after passengers. Security was minimal; there was no screening of passengers and baggage; departure lounges were not controlled spaces and airports did not have protective fencing. Canada, with its low levels of crime, political violence and handgun ownership, seemed even less worried than the United States about airline security.

The episode next examines the golden age of skyjacking, a global phenomenon that peaked in the late 1960s and early 1970s and was heavily reported in the media and made an impact in pop culture in terms of humour, editorial cartoons, books and movies. Dozens of U.S.-based flights were hijacked, with many skyjackers demanding to be taken to Havana. Many on the political left regarded Cuba under the Castro regime to be a socialist haven from American capitalism, racism and imperialism. The skyjacker was often viewed as a new type of social rebel produced by the tensions of the 1960s, but not all of them were politically motivated. Some were fleeing the law, others demanded ransoms, others were thrill seekers or hungry for publicity and a few were mentally ill. Airlines and governments resisted implementing expensive and intrusive security measures until actual violence threatened aircraft, passengers and crews. Canada experienced several skyjackings, only one of which was successful.

We move on to the background of the skyjacker of Air Canada Flight 303, a young African American from Texas, Charles L. Beasley, who had been involved with the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Dallas. By the mid-1960s SNCC, which had taken part in the freedom struggles in the U.S. South, was morphing into an all-Black organization tied to the anti-Vietnam War and Black Power movements. Beasley’s name appeared in secret files of the FBI, which was monitoring political activities by Black activists. According to a later interview, Beasley became radicalized after the assassination of Civil Rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King in 1968. Whatever the reason, he took part in an armed bank robbery in the small Texas community of Ladonia in August of 1968 with at least two other men but escaped arrest. Wanted by the FBI, he fled to Canada. The episode ends with Mark and Greg speculating why and how Beasley ended up in Canada, and more specifically, Halifax, Nova Scotia, which he left in the early hours of Sept. 11, 1968, carrying an .22 calibre revolver and heading for the Saint John airport.

Show Notes: https://www.nothinghappenedhere.ca/post/except-for-the-first-skyjacking-in-canada